Jhana4 wrote:An American born Buddhist monk, Thanisaro Bhikku, published a book called "Wings To Awakening". You can find a free copy by Googling. The theme of the book is that the Buddha knew that his teachings would eventually get distorted and die out. The Buddha made several lists describing qualities a person could develop. The most famous of these lists is The 8 Fold Path. His theory was that if a person worked to develop all of the qualities on any of those lists the quest would eventually force them to rediscover and relearn his teachings.

In the preface to this book he calls the wings to awakening "bodhi-pakkhiya-dhamma." Wikipedia has an entry about this. Is it accurate? The book is also mostly sutras. Is this a good place to start studying sutras?Thank you.Daniel

danieLion wrote:In the preface to this book he calls the wings to awakening "bodhi-pakkhiya-dhamma." Wikipedia has an entry about this. Is it accurate? The book is also mostly sutras. Is this a good place to start studying sutras?

I think it is a good place to start to see what Buddhism is actually about versus what is portrayed as Buddhism in many popular books. My opinion is that a better anthology for starting to study the suttas would be "Word Of The Buddha" by Bhikku Bodhi, which should come after reading "The Wings To Awakening"

Last edited by Jhana4 on Sun May 29, 2011 4:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.

I've not seen a sutta collection that comes close to giving the breadth of the Buddha's teaching as Bhikkhu Bodhi's collection. Wings To Awakening is also excellent, but it is much more focussed on particular aspects of the teachings. And to me it reads more like a Thesis than an introduction. (Not a bad thing, just a different thing.). You can read it on-line and as a PDF here: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/

"Wings To Awakening" is available in just about every kind of electronic format, for free, under the sun. I don't know if it is still true, but a very nice hard copy at one time could be obtained by writing away to Thanisarro Bhikkus monestary.

In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.

Jhana4 wrote:"Wings To Awakening" is available in just about every kind of electronic format, for free, under the sun. I don't know if it is still true, but a very nice hard copy at one time could be obtained by writing away to Thanisarro Bhikkus monestary.

Probably still the case. I had a paper copy that I picked up somewhere, sometime, perhaps at a Monastery. Actually, I think I remember who I lent it to... Hmmmm..... And said person has one of my other books too...

Hi ALL,Thanks for the great posts. So I read Wings to Awakening and just started In the Buddha's Words. These books are very different from other books I have read (Thich Nhat Hanh, Goldstein, Kornfield, Chogyam Trungpa, Upasika Kee, etc...) Bhikkhu Bodhi also talks about the bodhipakkiyadhamma and the Wiki site on it looks good to me too. From what little I know. How important is bodhipakkiyadhamma overall? Maybe I am looking to hard for a condensed Buddhism, but I like the way the concept seems to kind of streamline the Buddha's teachings. Daniel

Depends on who you talk to. For me, its very important. For others - not so. Its a condensation of the requisites for enlightenment in 37 factors.You may wish to check out a thread I started earlier this year on the bodhipakkiya dhammas. Also, check out Ledi Sayadaw's bodhipakkiya dhamma dipani (Manual of the 37 requisites of enlightenment). If you search for and find my earlier thead - you should find a link there to an online edition of the Sayadaw's Dipani.kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Jhana4 wrote:"Wings To Awakening" is available in just about every kind of electronic format, for free, under the sun. I don't know if it is still true, but a very nice hard copy at one time could be obtained by writing away to Thanisarro Bhikkus monestary.

How to order paper copies of Wings and other books from Wat Metta is mentioned on ATI here.They have been good about even sending a box of books to temples and centers for distribution.

P.S. Jhana4, If you order a box for the DC Vihara be sure to let Dhammasiri know these are for FREE distribution.

“Worms look out of the eyes of the very rich and all the platitudes about them are true.” – Venerable Ñāṇamoli (A Thinkers Notebook, 1946)

Have you ordered hard copies of Wings To Awakening recently? Like I wrote, I'm wondering if they *still* send paper copies.

Venerable Dhammasiri is still very much himself, but I think he might have changed, at least somewhat. The monk who teaches meditation has been away traveling. The junior monk who lead the officiated meditations in his absence is now also away. Venerable Dhammasiri not only attended the evening meditation the other night, but he officiated it himself.

In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.

Jhana4 wrote:Have you ordered hard copies of Wings To Awakening recently? Like I wrote, I'm wondering if they *still* send paper copies.

ATI website is usually very current with things, so if the option is still mentioned there I would guess it is still good. I don't recall just how timely they were, but at temples I stay at in the States I usually have been the one ordering but it has been awhile. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure I ever actually wrote regular-post to Wat Metta, I may have contacted John Bullitt through ATI (if that is still an option).

khantikhantikhanti

“Worms look out of the eyes of the very rich and all the platitudes about them are true.” – Venerable Ñāṇamoli (A Thinkers Notebook, 1946)